


Book 1: Waves

by heavensweetheart



Series: The Legend of Katara [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang wasn't a bad Avatar, Action, Action/Adventure, Aged-Up Character(s), And Katara must learn from them, Angst, Avatara, Basically I'm just giving more in-depth to what was featured on the show, Culture, Developing Friendships, Don't Judge Me, Episode: s01e03 The Southern Air Temple, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Female Friendship, For better explaining let me put it like this, For the record everybody has a crush on Katara, Friendship, Fun, GYATSO IS ALIVE!!, Gen, He still committed a lot of mistakes tho, He's more of a father figure than a past life anyways, Kanna FINALLY gets the recognition she deserves, Katara's the Avatar and she must master the four elements, Like Katara's the Avatar, Northern Water Tribe, Northern Water Tribe is also trickier than what you think, Not even at a 100 years old, Order of the White Lotus, POV First Person, Politics, Protective Siblings, SO ARE THE AIR NOMADS!!, She also gets to face the consequences of not telling her family certain things, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Sibling Rivalry, Siblings, Sokka is resentful but loves his sister, Southern Water Tribe, Southern Water Tribe is stronger than what you think, Team as Family, There certainly ARE a lot of secrets going around, This is a Zutara story but I want to have fun with this, Well the most part at least, Why wouldn't they?!, You gotta deal with it, not a slow burn, the slow burn, Í always wanted to do this!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-02-23 07:03:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23707576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavensweetheart/pseuds/heavensweetheart
Summary: Water.Earth.Fire.Air.Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked…***The Hundred Year War continues and the new Avatar, a waterbender named Katara, has been kept from the outside world for the past 16 years as she awaits to start her official training. It is only by accident that she is discovered by the Fire Nation's banished prince, but the encounter will embark them both - along with Katara's older brother, Sokka, and their new friends along the way - to a quest to restore balance, even though Katara still has a lot to learn before turning the Avatar.But I believe Katara can save the world.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Kanna & Katara (Avatar), Katara & Pakku (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Suki (Avatar), Katara & Yue (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), slight Jet/Katara, somewhat Haru/Katara
Series: The Legend of Katara [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707409
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I want to make a fun little game out of this fic!
> 
> Listen carefully: Even with everything crazy going on in my life as of now, I want to make a Zutara fancomic and I'm working towards it. Of course, I needed to script the plot for that comic somewhere, and I decided to do it on a fic... But I'm not going to tell you which one is it!
> 
> I'm going to post two (2) fanfiction series today, and you'll have to guess and then wait and see which one makes into a comic!
> 
> It's fun, isn't it?!

**Prologue**

_Water._

_Earth._

_Fire._

_Air._

_Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked…_


	2. Reborn

**Katara**

When I was little, I used to wonder why we had to move around so much.

Why were there always bombing and explosions outside? My brother and I used to snoop outdoors to see what was going on.

Now, Sokka and I sneak our heads over the monticule of snow synchronized.

It’s one of those times when our expressions and gestures are _so_ alike it’s creepy – and awfully annoying between siblings.

“Sokka,” I half-whisper, half-grit between my teeth, “you know we have no permission to go to the Harbor Village today.”

“It’s not the first time I’m sneaking out, little sister,” he replies confidently, smirking like he was on the top of the world only for escaping through the window a couple of times, “This is only the first time that I’m bringing _you_.”

I glare at him; hard.

But my eyes return to the small village at the feet of the hill from where we’re spying on. There’re people walking around the familial tents, arriving from their fishing trips, dying the textiles, and doing hundreds of things that I’ve only seen Gran-Gran do while teaching them to me and my brother. It’s exciting, I’m not used to be around so much people! Gran-Gran always makes us come to the Harbor Village only when _strictly_ necessary.

I stare dreamily at all the action. _Maybe I can make some new friends!_

“Sokka!”

My face falls. _Oh, those are Sokka’s supposedly stud friends…_

Han, Mako, and Bolin. They are waving up to our monticule as a salute.

(I’m not sure if it’s totally fair that I say _supposedly_ when calling them “studs”. They _do_ are very well build.) (Broad chests and all…)

“Hey!” Sokka stands up remarkably excited – obviously not caring about maintaining our cover anymore – and he slides down the snow hill to join them, leaving me behind.

“You brought _your sister_ with you?” Han looks just the fairly surprised to see me accompanying Sokka to his silly escapades, but he’s quick to form a smile when he notices I’m returning his gaze.

I don’t answer, but slide down the snow to the end of the hill instead. My braids and hair loops wave behind my shoulders with the wind.

“Hey, guys.” I smile at all of them as a collective when I finally stand on my boots in the snow.

Han continues to smile widely – and apparently, he is also making the effort to block the sight of Mako and Bolin from me. “Hey, Katara! It’s so nice to see you. As always.”

He keeps his smile in place, but somehow making it more waving and smooth.

It’s making me feel uncomfortable.

“Hi, Han,” I say, hesitantly, “Thanks, I just… thought about coming with Sokka to see what you guys are up to when you steal my brother away.”

( _Maybe_ I’m trying a little too hard to sound easygoing.) (I can tell for my own awkward laugh.)

“This is _awesome_!” Bolin jumps up – like, he _actually_ jumps. Kind of like a kangawolf. “Katara can hang out with us today!”

“Or,” Sokka takes me by my shoulders and starts pushing me in the direction we both came from, “she could go back to our house before Gran-Gran comes back and sees neither of us is there.”

I push his arms away and turn to him. (Glaring at him, but that’s implicit!) “If you’re so worried about Gran-Gran finding out you’re sneaking away, then why do you do so in the first place?”

“It’s not like anybody is going to wonder where _I_ am,” he returns my gaze even harder. And there’s a rigidity in his voice too… It creeps into my insides and ties my stomach into a knot.

“Oh, c’mon, Sokka!” Bolin cuts in completely oblivious to our standoff. He puts an arm around my shoulders and squeezes me against him in what I assume is meant to be a friendly embrace, but feels more like a strangulation. “Put yourself in _my_ shoes, man! This can be the only chance that I got to hang out with the _Avatar_!”

**Sokka**

“ _Shhhhhhhhhhhh!_ ” (Is this guy insane or _what_?) “Don’t say that out loud!”

“It’s not like everybody in the Southern Water Tribe doesn’t already knows,” Mako – always the brains – cuts in to where he was not called for!

“But the Fire Nation doesn’t already know!”

I know I look like I’m losing my shit over this – because I totally _am_ losing my shit over this!

How come these people even _think_ about talking such a matter so casually in exposed territory? Don’t they know anything about war tactics? Am I the _only_ one that takes what our fathers taught us seriously?

“Good luck that there aren’t Fire Nation people around then,” Han shrugs.

“There could be spies!”

I narrow my eyes at our surroundings. (We are being watched, I can _feel_ it!)

“Sokka, don’t you think that if there was a Fire Nation spy on the Tribe we would have discovered it by now?” Katara wonders.

 _You’re not allowed to speak in this matter. Shut up_.

I tell her that, but with my _eyes_.

“Besides, why would they even send a spy to these parts?” Han continues. “All of the waterbenders, both male and female, went away to fight in the war _years_ ago. ( _That’s_ how big the war is.) Both of the Poles isolated themselves from the world, and the waterbenders that are not fighting are guarding the entrance to the Poles from all fronts for no foreign ships to come in. As far as I know, we haven’t received foreigners for 16 years.”

“You were baby for two of those 16 years!” I debate. “How can you tell somebody didn’t enter during that time?”

He rolls his eyes. “You’re right, Sokka, the Fire Nation was already hunting your sister while the Avatar Aang was still alive.”

“You know they could – ”

“Sokka,” I feel the weight of Katara’s gloved hand on my shoulder before I fully turn to look at her, “relax. We are safe as of now. And I want to be here with you, guys. Remember I said I just wanted to go out like a normal teenager?”

Han chuckles under his breath and mutters: “You didn’t exactly pick up the most normal teenagers to hang out with.”

“And we should appreciate the time while we still have it,” Mako remarks. “Remember that by the end of this year all of the 18-year-old benders and nonbenders will be enrolled to fight in the war as well.”

“These are some of our last times together, boys,” Bolin whispers.

I square up my shoulders – to impose my presence as the Tribe’s tactical chief by excellence – and I’m about to give them my encouraging military speech when Katara covers my mouth with her hand. (It kinda sounds like a slap on the mouth.) – “So what’s the plan for today, boys?”

“We are going to go fishing,” Han announces her.

“Think you can handle that, Katara?” I ask her, but my classic Sokk-asm would be perceived better if it didn’t come muffled by her hand. ( _Puaj!_ I think I swallowed a fuzz!)

“Sounds like fun to me! Let’s go!”

**Katara**

Along with the boys, we all grab canoes for the five of us and sail to the most dug glaciers, where the fishes hide themselves from the Tribe’s people… But I don’t get why on the ever living world the others thought it was a good idea for me and Sokka to travel together!

“Alright, Katara, pay attention and see how it’s done.”

Sokka wolfs at the water avidly with his eyes, and his lance in hand, hunching forward ready to attack. He kinda looks like a starved coyotelizard. Which is strange because there aren’t fishes around.

“Uh… Sokka?”

“Shhhhh!”

“But, Sokka – ”

“ _Shhhhh!_ ” He empathizes – and spits – more this time.

I sigh and roll my eyes, (not necessarily in that order.)

Then I command a wave to rise from the plain waters, drive it to get to our canoe and jump on top of it bending an ice board.

Moving speedily as if I was flying, I surf across the glaciers feeling the cold wind in my face and the excitement warming my insides.

“Guys,” I call out to the boys, “take out your buckets.”

I direct the wave to surround each of their boats, and I give pirouetting sidekicks to throw out the fishes trapped in the waters that I’m using. (I didn’t really turn to check if the others had pulled out their fishing buckets, but when I hear the metallic crashes, it’s enough for me.)

“Awesome!”

“You’re amazing, Kat!”

“Best. Avatar. Ever!”

I direct the wave to approach one of the glaciers floating in the waters. The boys follow my lead and step on top of it as I skate down the water to join them – accidentally splashing Sokka in the process. (Whoops!) 

“Why is it that every time _you_ play with magic water, _I_ get soaked?”

“It’s not ‘magic’,” I remark, annoyed, “it’s _waterbending_. And it’s…”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘an ancient art unique to our culture’, blah, blah, blah!” I silently pray for him to bite his tongue right now. “Look, I’m just saying – ” he grabs his hair knob with his hands wringing the water out of it “ – if I had weird powers, I’d keep my weirdness to myself.”

I make a whole performance out of rearing back, crossing my arms over my chest and high-pitching my voice as I extend my phrase: “ _Excuse_ me?”

“Uh, guys…” (I think I hear Han attempting to cut in.)

“You’re calling _me_ weird?” I demand, my eyes intent on Sokka.

“ _Hey!_ ” Bolin places himself between both of us, putting his arms around each of our shoulders and an awkward smile on his face. “Isn’t this _great_ quality time together? Remember, what I said about last moments together and all?”

Sokka and I break our stare contest at the same time. “Right.”

“Let’s just keep fishing, okay?” Mako grabs his lance and readily jumps to his own canoe. Bolin and Han follow.

Sokka and I stay behind for a while. I get the feeling that neither of us wants to be anywhere near each other right now, but for not standing in a canoe together, we are standing in a glacier together, so…

I hop on the canoe.

Sokka follows, but putting his feet on the small boat, he slips off of the glacier, sending our canoe spinning without course further into the horizon… and closer to the golf that leads the current into the open sea.

_Uh-oh!_

“Ah!”

I shriek and hold on to the canoe to try keep it steady, but the current is just too strong for me to maintain it still with my counterweight only. Sokka joins me in my attempt but it still isn’t enough, the canoe continues to balance like a giant rocking chair over the ice and the water splashes in my face.

“Katara, watch out!”

I raise my gaze at Sokka’s call only to encounter a mishmash of large icebergs to which the current is dragging us. And speaking about the current, it’s also pushing the icebergs close together, creating only a tiny space for our canoe to pass that becomes even narrower the more we approach.

“Sokka, hold on to something!” I command. And then, with the force of my hands, I make the water to impulse us forward to pass through the tiny hole between the icebergs before they crush us.

I don’t turn when I hear the two icebergs clashing strenuously against each other behind my back, and with good reason, because I think the panic made me push the water too speedily, enough for an abrupt halt to bounce Sokka and I along with our canoe into the air like we were in a trampoline instead of the vast ocean.

I watch the chunks of ice become more and more distant and smaller under my eyes. Our screams mix with the tundra’s wind.

Wait… Wind! That’s it! (Airbending, don’t fail me now!)

Gravity makes Sokka and I fall again, but I push us up with an air current from my feet to hit our canoe that’s still up in the air instead of the icy water. We spin a little more before we land on top of another iceberg and the canoe skates down the slithery thing, but the speed of our slide only makes us land on yet another iceberg and slip once again. And again and again. Until we finally land in the water with a – wait for it – dry thud.

_Well…_

“Katara! Sokka!” Han, Mako and Bolin sail towards us hurriedly. “Are you guys okay?”

“That was freaking awesome!” Bolin’s eyes look like they could shoot fireworks; Mako and Han’s look like they could strangle him in the spot. “… Or not.”

“We are fine,” Sokka spits, both the words and a little water I think he shallowed, “Thanks a lot for that, Katara.”

“Wait, you’re blaming _me_ for this?”

“I _knew_ I should’ve left you home!” he proclaims angry but smugly, like he knows everything there is to know not only in the Tribe but in the entire world. (Arrogant prick!) “Leave it to a girl to screw things up!”

“You got to be freaking kidding me!” I stand up with only one stomp of my foot – and ask me if I care that the canoe could sink for it! If it sinks with Sokka, the better!

“You are the most sexist,” I stomp my foot again and feel the canoe shudder underneath me, “immature,” I swing my hands behind as I scream, as if I was taking impulse to throw my words like a cannon ball to him, “nut brained creature alive!” I bring my hands up to my head and swing them back again. (Maybe I’m just trying to mimic ripping my hair out of pure insanity!)

“I’m embarrassed to be related to you!” I continue with another stomp of my foot. The more I continue to gesture the more the canoe shudders, (it feels good.) I stomp one more time and I hear the symphony of the glaciers around us splitting in unison.

“Ah… Katara?”

“Ever since mom and dad left,” I point an accusatory finger at Sokka, and then an encouraging thump to me, “ _I’ve_ been doing all the work in our house while _you’ve_ been off playing soldier!”

“Katara.”

“I even wash all the clothes!” I continue. (Why have I never realized how ridiculous that sounds until _now?_ ) “Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, _not. Pleasant!_ ”

The canoe gives a violent waving with the remarking of my words.

“Katara, calm down!”

“No, that’s it!” I’m done with this guy! Done with him and his smelly socks and his stupid war tactics and his bullshit! “I’m _done_ helping you! From now on, you’re on your _own_!”

I stomp once more to physically state my point into the Earth.

And make four giant waves to rise from the four directions around us and submerge, sucking us with them into the water as the glaciers collapse with a strenuous kind of explosion that pushes the water – and the fishes along with us – up.

Soaking wet, we bounce and inexplicably land back on our canoes on the now relatively calm sea filled with microscopic chunks of ice, what makes it the most bizarre are the fishes falling around and on top of our heads like rain.

“Congratulations, Katara.” Sokka picks up a still flapping fish from the top of his head. (I decide to credit the disgruntled look on his face to the smell of it.) “You’ve gone from ‘weird’ to ‘freakish’.”

“Don’t make things worse for you, Sokka! Didn’t you heard what she said about leaving you on your own?”

“And apparently you need her even for getting food.” Bolin salivates over a big fish in his arms.

“And you need each other for spending months grounded!”

My spine suddenly turns into a _really_ long metal string.

It’s too tense for me to turn my head to Gran-Gran’s voice.


	3. If I lose myself tonight

**Katara**

“No trips to Harbor Village! No fishing! No friends! No _bending_!”

“But –”

“Only during your practice with the White Lotus’ masters!”

“Gran-Gran, please, listen to me.”

“ _No._ ” Her gloved hand slices the air between us. “I’m especially disappointed at you, Katara. I never thought you would disobey me and your masters in such a way.”

“Hey!” It’s surprising the velocity with which Sokka runs to us from his quarters. “Does that mean you thought _I_ would disobey like that? Whoa, thanks for your vow of trust, Gran.”

“Was I in the wrong?”

He scowls, pouts, and looks away, his ponytail almost hits him in the face. (I would like to say that not necessarily in that order… but it _is_ in that order.)

“Gran-Gran, it was never our intention to disobey you,” I plea.

She’s unmoved, and rightfully so. “That’s what you did.”

“Yes, but…” I look down. Up again. “It was my fault. I told Sokka I wanted to go to the Harbor Village to be like a normal teenager for once.”

“Katara.” A newborn relief flourishes in me when her expression softens; slowly – ( _painfully_ slowly for a girl who’s aiming at not spending the rest of her teenage years grounded) – her brows loosen from her frown, her wrinkles lose their stony trace.

She sighs. “You know there’s nothing I wish for more than a life where you can be happy.”

_Yes!_

“But we can’t afford that luxury yet.”

_No!_

“It’s not fair!” An annoyance that I didn’t notice I’d been carrying creeps into my voice, startling me. “I can’t spend the rest of my days secluded in interchanging houses across the tundra!”

“Don’t be so disrespectful! These cabins are constructed by the Order of The White Lotus with materials provided by the Tribe themselves!”

“I’m not disrespectful, I’m the _Avata_ r!” I feel my own face contorting into a furiously indignant frown. “If I can’t be a normal girl, then I should be training for teaching the Fire Lord to not mess with my Tribe!”

“I admire your confidence, Katara.”

I put my hands on my hips and don’t back down from my stance.

Well… maybe a little.

Yes?

No?

Ugh! Yes, I’m flattered that a member of the Order of The White Lotus just complimented me. So what?

(It hits different when Gran-Gran is wearing her uniform; with its history, the deep blue tunic with its prominent sleeves decorated with the sign of the order is worthy of reverence by itself.) (Besides, arguing with Gran-Gran is too much of unknown territory for me.) (We are always on the same side on _everything_!)

“But it might be your overconfidence the one that could cause your fall,” she says, her face impassive. “It has happened before. And you’re not ready to become the Avatar just yet.”

“I’m _sixteen_!” I cry.

“I didn’t mean your age, I meant your management of the elements,” she clarifies, “You’re one of the greatest waterbenders that I’ve ever seen – you truly are, my little granddaughter – and your earthbending has improved significantly, but you haven’t even started your firebending, the only airbending moves you know you’ve learned them by _accident_.”

“I would have started firebending now if that Jeong-Jeong guy wasn’t so picky about when to start!” I don’t stop to consider my “bad-mannered” reference to a White Lotus master. (I’m not angry yet, but I’m getting there.)

I cross my arms and turn away, the scowl is stiff on my face.

“You’re still too hot-headed.” Gran-Gran sighs. “And perhaps that’s what has allowed you to learn so much since we first discovered you were the Avatar.” Nostalgia tints her voice. “It’s hard to tell. But with the war and the Fire Nation army as it is, we can’t afford ourselves to go to the battle with a flawed Avatar.”

The blank shock makes me lose hold of my self-embrace… and of my facial muscles. My mouth goes slack. I turn back to Gran-Gran, her hurt but resolute blue eyes stare into my own.

“Hey!” Sokka cuts in again. His hand lands strongly on my shoulder. “Katara ain’t a flawed anything! She can beat anyone that comes at her even without the stand-offish Avatar training!”

“It’s not stand-offish, it’s necessary,” Gran-Gran insists. “And the Order has recorded the Avatars who have had inconveniences in their bending training for the interference of their personal character flaws. The Avatar Kuruk, he…”

“We ain’t here for a history lesson, Gran-Gran,” Sokka almost sounds offended now. “You just called Katara a flawed Avatar when everybody here knows she’s the most perfect being in the entire world. We, mere mortals, are not worthy. Hail the Avatar Katara!” (The discourse would be more flattering if it didn’t come out so sarcastic.) “She’s as much of a good Avatar as the Super Avatar Aang was.”

“Aang took 10 years to learn earthbending.”

I can _sense_ Sokka’s eyes widening at the same time as mine.

“His airbender mentality didn’t allow him to gain the firmness of character that the earthbending required.” One of her brows arches while her mouth curves on a wry smirk. _Is that how_ I _look when I do that?_ “Granted to the man, though, not _everyone_ would have endured the training King Bumi put him through.”

Silence.

She sighs again, but it’s only weary now. “Kids, do you mind sitting for a moment?”

Sokka and I blink. The stun washes off. In a rush, we nod and kneel on the cushions placed on the floor; I take a moment to appreciate the furniture of our cabin.

We had to move again two years ago, to a much dug and deserted place in the Pole. Not close enough to our ice barriers to be easy to reach if the Fire Nation ever penetrated, not far enough to be unreachable for our allies watching over the barriers. I think this is my favorite house so far, it’s classic and comfy, decorated only with typical Water Tribe accouterments, and some fur and fittings that the foreign members of the White Lotus – the closest to Gran-Gran – have handed us from their respective birth countries.

As my gaze wanders through the walls upholstered with arctic panda fur, I remember that I have to thank Monk Gyatso for the koala sheep wool shawls he sent me a few months ago. 

“Kids, do you remember the story of Hama?”

My head darts to Gran-Gran. _Hama, the most powerful waterbender in the history of our Tribe._ “What about her?”

“Remember the story I’ve told you about her?”

“That she was the greatest waterbender to ever exist,” I reply, sort of excitedly. (I _love_ that story!)

“I don’t know if the greatest to ever exist but…”

She sighs once more. I don’t like it, it sounds as though she’s becoming more tired by minute. When she looks up to us again, she has a strange kind of smile on her face. The kind you have to put up for the sake of others.

“Remember that I told you her and I were friends in our youth?”

“Yes.”

“I remember her vividly,” she says, her gaze gets lost in the air above the floor, “Fondly, too, but there are things about her that I wish I didn’t have to remember, that circumstances had been different so she hadn’t taken the decisions that she took.” Her smile vanishes, the corner of her lips curve downwards. “She was indeed a wonderful waterbender, but she was also reckless and hot-tempered, more than I had ever seen a waterbender be until then.” A pause. “In a way, you are a lot like her, Katara.”

Her voice turns flimsy, like the smoke from a dying bonfire in the winter.

“She decided to abandon the Tribe and infiltrate herself in the Fire Nation.” A shiver runs down my spine. “She was convinced that she could dismantle an entire float by herself. We never knew about her again after she left.”

Gran-Gran looks sad. She’s _never_ sad.

She’s always proud and focused, and decorous and sweet, and stern if needed, but she’s never sad. It softens her face but makes it seem worn out by more than the years. Maybe that’s the face of a normal woman who had to see her son and his wife renounce to their life to protect their children from a nonsensical war, but Gran-Gran is not just any woman, she’s Gran-Gran!

I reach out and take her hand in mine. Her fingers are skinny through the glove.

“Sometimes I’m afraid that something similar will happen to you, Katara,” she says. “Hama was so centered in saving everyone by herself that she didn’t listen to the ones that tried to help her, not even me. I lost my friend even when I desperately tried to protect her, I can’t bear that to happen to my granddaughter. I wouldn’t bear that sort of pain.”

_Gran-Gran._

**Sokka**

It is at times like this that I wonder what am I doing here. When Gran-Gran and Katara start talking like this about Avatar stuff, or bending, or moving lectures about having a huge, important destiny that doesn’t concern me; that I can’t even begin to understand. I’m an unnecessary audience invading their intimate, painting-like moment. Katara didn’t took the chance to dry herself or change her clothes when we got back – she was too desperate to keep herself in Gran-Gran’s favor – her two wet, messy braids fall over her shoulders against her coat. (At any other time, both her and Gran-Gran would be panicking over the wet hair ruining the fur.) (But seriously, who wears braids and hair loops at the same time?)

They look at each other right in the eye, it’s one of those times when it appears that they are talking without speaking. And I’m not invited to the conversation.

“Well,” I stand up, stretching my arms in the air, “I guess I’ll give you two some space.”

“You have prohibited to go out, Sokka,” Gran-Gran reminds me.

“I know, no worries, I’m tired anyways. I’ll sleep on until tomorrow. Good night.”

I give a few steps towards my quarters, but I decide to pause for a moment. “Oh, and Gran-Gran, don’t be so harsh on Katara for sneaking out, I’m the one that first got out after you went to send your letters to the White Lotus. She tried to drag me back, but I kept going so she followed me. It was all my fault, not hers.”

***

**Katara**

Moving firmly my arms and legs, I command some earthbending stair-like platforms to rise from under the snow forming an irregular path of curves and straight lines. As they grow larger and higher, I shape the snow in their way into a giant wall and freeze it even further into thick ice. The crash is not as loud as you might think but it sends small pieces of ice flying into the air, obscuring with the reflection of the night sky but shining under the moonlight.

(I convinced Gran-Gran to lift my bending ban, I need to practice for my lessons.)

Taking the risk of being caught, I decide to cheat and leave my practice for a moment. I walk to the border of the cliff I chose, and sit with my legs hanging down. (I wanted to practice somewhere with even a small view of Harbor Village, but our house is too far away for that.) (Though, I don’t complain for my view to the vast blue ocean.)

The salty air tickles my cheeks, something that normally would make me feel like the happiest little girl in the world, but tonight’s darkly cold air fills my lungs, so I bring my knees to my chest wrapping my arms around them, attempting to heat. I don’t know if it is the Pole’s cold the one that’s icing me; for the memories going on in my head, I think it is my conversation with Gran-Gran from this afternoon.

I’ve got plenty of things out of it. _Flawed Avatar, Hama, Mom and Dad fighting a war away from us._

(When I was a little, I wondered why Mom had to leave too when it was Dad the one that had weapons.) (I believed that weapons meant fight, and only people with weapons knew how to fight.)

(How silly I was.)

It wasn’t until a few years later that I understood Mom was a medic, and then I understood what a medic was – (I always thought waterbending healing was the only way to cure wounds.) She was the one in charge of treating the warriors. I remember it was then that I knew women were just as necessary in the battle as men, even more so.

I also remember how much I’ve missed her ever since, I know moms aren’t supposed to leave their children.

I duck my head and hide it between my knees and chest. Hot tears boil my eyes before their heavy, unceremonious fall.

Her necklace’s pendant is hard and cold against my chin, it is a small console and a cruel reminder.

I wonder what she would think about me right now. Me, crying and letting my guard down for any Fire Nation lunatic to attack me. Then I think what Gran-Gran would think of me if she knew my thoughts. Me, thinking the way Hama would have thought.

_Am I really that much of a flawed Avatar? One that does not know how to act, even how to think?_

The sound of footsteps interrupt me before I get to answer my own question.

I turn alert to find… “Sokka?”

He stands in the tip of his right feet’s toes and the tip of his left feet in the air just _about_ to hit the floor. I can’t tell if the awkward and bewildered expression of his face is for how uncomfortable the pose is or because I caught him in the act.

“Hey, little sister,” he doesn’t even loosens his posture to greet me, “What are you up to?”

I arch an eyebrow. “It looks like I should be the one asking you.”

“I was… uh… sleepwalking.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“And you dressed up while asleep?”

He looks down at his usual (and very properly put) fur coat. “Yes.”

“Sokka,” I say sternly, “Gran-Gran forbid you from going out.”

“She also forbid you from practicing your bending.” He frowns at me. “Yet here you are.”

“I told her I needed to practice for my bending lessons.”

“And I’ll tell her something like that for myself… tomorrow. I’ve got important things to do now.”

I arch my eyebrow again, making sure to make it as ironical as possible. “Like what?”

“A few days ago Hahn dared us all to go to the wrecked Fire Nation ship.”

 _“What?”_ I’m surprised any remaining ice around us didn’t break for how high-pitched my squeal was. “Are you insane?”

“You know how much I want to know about the Fire Nation army, Katara,” he pleas, finally standing straight and looking at me with sparkling, dreamy eyes. “It could be my only chance to record information to defeat the Fire Nation floats when we are attacked.”

“Sokka, didn’t you learn anything from this afternoon?”

“Yes, to not bring an Avatar to spoil your fun.”

“What? What happened to ‘it was all my fault’?”

“I said that to get you off the hook, now you owe me not telling Gran-Gran about this.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” I tell him. “Whatever you said it was because _yo_ u wanted to say it. And now it is _you_ the one that wants to go on a suicidal mission.”

“It’s not suicidal, I’ll be with three of the most prominent Southern Water Tribe warriors.”

“Sokka, last week both Hann and Bolin fell from a snow watchtower. And I mean a _toy_ snow watchtower built by seven-year-olds!”

“Whoa, that spread pretty fast, didn’t it?”

“You can’t go to the wrecked ship with them!” I reason, on the edge of _straggling_ some sense into him. “It could be dangerous!”

“The duty of a warrior is always dangerous, little sister.” I _hate_ his supposedly solemn impersonations. “Now, if you excuse me, my friends are waiting for me.”

“Sokka – ” I try to reach for him. He escapes my grip. “Sokka, wait!”

He continues walking and whistling joyfully and I feel like I could chew his head off if it wasn’t so damn big!

I groan and run after him. I swear I’ve never met more of a careless human being in my _life_!

**Zuko**

Yawn. “I’m going to bed now.”

I don’t answer.

“Yep, a man needs his rest.”

I don’t answer to that either.

Uncle gives up. “Prince Zuko, you need some sleep. Even if you're right, and the Avatar is around these parts, you won't find him. Your father, grandfather and great-grandfather all tried and failed to capture the Avatars from their respective times.”

Now I _do_ answer. “Because their _honor_ didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture. Mine _does_. This coward's years in hiding are _over_!”

As if cue to my words – most certainly destined – a great shaft of light bursts in the distance and rockets into the sky. It’s like a lightning, but bigger and denser, and blindingly white. It makes its way through the clouds trespassing them with raw power alone.

“ _Finally!_ ” I say.


	4. I don't know who I am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a chapter dedicated to @lunashaw57 on Tumblr for their kind words regarding the fic!

**Katara**

Only a madman would ever go near that shipwreck! And apparently also a mad _woman_. 

“I’m glad you decided to accompany us tonight, Katara.” Hann uses his waving/smooth smile once more, and this time it only gets to annoy me.

“I didn’t come here to _accompany_ you, I came here to _stop_ you! That ship is one of the _worst_ memories for our Tribe.”

“And we should learn from the mistakes of the past to prevent more bad memories in the future.” Sokka walks casually over the ice not even checking how thin it is.

“It could be booby-trapped,” I counter.

“What was it that the Avatar Aang said once? ‘If you want to be a bender, you _have_ to let go of fear’?”

Sokka turns his head just enough to show me off his smug smirk and narrow my eyes at him like I could use my _“not-yet-acquired”_ firebending to make his head _explode_ right on the spot! We get closer to the ship; me at least, making sure to not give false steps over the traitorous ice.

This is pure stupidity, but somebody’s got to keep these idiots from killing themselves or alerting any Fire Nation assassin of our presence here. If I’m being completely honest, a part of me is thrilled. It’s my first time protecting someone, I’m acting like a _real_ Avatar! Aang would be proud.

“Guys, come over here!” Mako waves at us from a far corner of the ship. “I think I found a way in.”

Sokka, Hann, Bolin and me half-run to where he’s standing, I stay a little behind because I _really_ don’t want my new boots to get wet – or to sink us all in the freezing water.

Mako points to a hole in the hull of the ship. It’s oddly misplaced in comparison to where most of the damage was suffered, so I guess it’s a product of the deteriorating from the years. Sokka beams and pushes himself first to climb the great ice block holding the ship far from the ground… water… _frozen water_ , I watch with concern his fingers dangerously close to the irregularly cut, sharp sections forming the ice.

Mako and Bolin follow in tow and Hann helps me get up as well. We crawl through the hole and for a moment the image of us crawling through plumbing pipes forms in my head, which only makes me want to smack my own forehead for _ever_ tagging along with this. And I wouldn’t call it “fortunate” how fast we get to the inside of the craft. Do all Fire Nation ships have this demon-like glow in the darkness with the hamster rats chewing on the cables and walls? Well… it would figure if they did.

I almost yelp at the screech of one of the doors opening.

“Sokka!” I hiss. “We shouldn’t be touching anything!”

His gaze roams through the weapons stocked in the room he just opened. “How are we supposed to gather information if we don’t investigate?”

“We aren’t gathering any information,” I argue, “We are stepping back into one of the worst historical moments for our Tribe from the Fire Nation’s very first raids when Gran-Gran was little!”

“We’ll protect Gran-Gran better if we prepare ourselves for the coming raids.” His hand passes over the strange lance-like weaponries and large armaments, they are all metallic and constructed with complicated apparatus, they look nothing like our Tribe’s lances. They look _vile_.

“What do you think there is in the control cabin?” Hann ponders.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Bolin runs up through the hallway.

“Guys!” The rest of the boys run after him despite my call. “Let’s head back, this place is creepy!”

The control cabin is just like the rest of the ship, only that it gives me vertigo for the altitude that the boat’s peak is placed on the ice chunk pointing skywards.

“Do you guys think we could restore this thing and use it to our advantage?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“We could pass as any other Fire Nation boat. If we sail disguised as a bait for more floats to approach us, then we could capture the Fire Nation soldiers and their ships.”

“That’s brilliant!”

“That’s madness!” I say. “Sokka, didn’t you learn anything from Hama’s story?”

“Oh, forgive me if I’m not as touched by that story as a _bender_ would be.”

“Guys,” Bolin approaches the cabin’s wheel, “You think we could take this boat down by ourselves?”

“Yes!”

“ _No!_ ”

“Easy, Katara,” Hann puts a hand on my shoulder. What’s up with him and his weird smiles at me? “I’ll do it, I’m the best sailor in the Tribe anyways.”

“Maybe there’s a captain’s hat around here or something.”

Bolin lets go of the wheel and Hann takes it. I follow Bolin with my eyes as he looks frantically through the room looking for the supposed hat, and I can’t help this awful feeling in my gut making me anxious and sick. He opens a cabinet that appears to only open to a small panel of controls… but a cable attached to the cabinets handle breaks when opened.

Suddenly the entire ship shudders tumbling the five of us to fall to our knees on the floor. Strange noises come from the lower rooms, like metal hitting metal and steam devices howling.

The boat gives another violent shake as the noises increase in volume. They don’t sound alike but they remind me of a ticking bomb announcing an imminent explosion, and they aren’t high enough to not notice the loud shattering coming from _outside_ the craft. The following trembling from the boat’s part is even more violent, it’s like it was digging…

_The ice. The ice is breaking._

“Bolin, what did you do!” Sokka screams over the hysteria.

“Nothing!” There’s a _real_ explosion from the machine room. “Well, maybe something.”

“That panel must have been connected to the engines,” I explain, trying to get up. “But I don’t think they can handle the effort after so many years.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Only if ‘good’ means this ship is going into the water only to sink once and for all!”

“Why did I ask?”

We yap when the ship goes further down – rumbling and smashing like two icebergs colliding – and I strive to keep my balance to not skate over the newly slanting floor. Hann tries to hold the wheel to not slip, but he just manages to spin it to the left, making the craft to follow. We are on our way to float on our side over the ocean. 

“Stabilize it! Pull it to the right!” I command.

Mako and Hann hurry to follow my order, yet the panic makes to pull it _too_ much to the right. (We are on our way to float on a _different_ side over the ocean.)

“Pull it to the left again!”

“Katara, do something!” Sokka is frenetic.

“Hand me your club!”

He throws it at me and I catch it.

It’s more than a challenge to try walk inside a swinging ship. My vertigo worsens with the pronounced movement and my head throbs painfully with the awful blasts from the machinery, the smashing of the chunks of ice crashing between themselves and the metal, and the high-pitched screams from the boys.

I… I think I’m going to pass out.

But I don’t succumb to the nausea, I break the cabin’s window with just one blow of Sokka’s club. “Everybody, get out!”

I pull at Sokka’s arm the first – (of course I do, he’s my _brother_ ) – and then I push him to pass through the hole that I just opened. Mako is the closest to me so I assist him to exit next, and him and Sokka help pull Hann out. Bolin’s the last one.

“Katara, get out of there. I’ll get in and get Bolin.” Sokka outstretches his hand for me to take it.

“No,” I say firmly, “You go and get somewhere safe, I’ll join you when I get Bolin out of here.”

I turn midway through his “Katara, wait!”

The ship gives another stumble and this time it does fall several inches down to the side, enough for me to bounce and hit one wall and then land/crash on the opposite one.

“Katara!”

“Sokka, we need to get out of here!”

I hold my head to ease the ache and try focus my gaze. “Bolin?”

“Over here, masterful Avatar Katara!”

I blink several times to see properly, (I need to have a healing session as soon as I get out of this ship of hell.)

I stand up (barely) and half-walk, half-stagger to where I see a semi-clear bulky figure with greased brown hair.

“You okay?” I ask him once I come close.

“Yeah, but how are we gonna get out?” His eyes scoot upwards to the opening I made a few meters above us in the former left wall that is now the roof, while we stand on the former right wall that is now the floor.

“Mmmm,” I mutter. “Make sure to hang on to something.”

“What?”

I create a small tornado under his feet and shoot him up with an enhanced wind current.

Granted that he hits his head a little, but he gets to hang on to the wheel.

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay!”

“Try climb out through the opening!”

“Right.” He sways hanging from the steering wheel until he reaches some of the rest of the panels, pulls himself up and cleans some of the glass around to not cut himself. “Alright, now it’s just a matter of…”

The ship falls again.

Falls altogether, the ice breaks to the fullest.

The water fills the cabin before I finish to scream “ _Sokka!_ ”

**Sokka**

“ _Sokka!_ ”

“ _No!_ ”

My shout falls into the background for the ice breaking and echoing and the ocean gulping the ship where my sister is in.

It’s not enough. Nothing that I do is ever enough.

“ _No!_ ”

I’ll jump into the water. I’ll save Katara.

I have to…

A hand stops me. _No!_

“Sokka! Sokka, stop it!” A pause. “You can’t do anything.”

_No!_

_Katara!_

**Katara**

_Cold._

It’s the first and only thing that I register.

Being surrounded by water brings me an instinctive peace, and for a moment it silences the awareness that I won’t be able to hold my breath for long.

My mind is fuzzy, as if there were two different beings sharing my consciousness. One is me, the other is the water, and it’s also the one that’s taking over by now, ordering me to keep floating errantly without resisting.

The seawater stings my eyes when I open them.

If you’ve never seen underwater, let me tell you, it’s blurry, but clear enough for me to make out Bolin’s figure drifting unconscious not too far away from me. My head starts to throb again, my ears hurt; the boat must be sinking speedier than I thought, the pressure is increasing. I have to get Bolin out of here.

I grab him by the sleeve of his coat, and swim aloft to get to the broken space of the window, I try to open it wider but I only end up cutting my hand. A thin but wide string of blood flows from the ragged cloth of my glove tinting the water in front of my eyes. (I just hope there aren’t any whalesharks around here.)

The pressure intensifies, my lungs hurt, the need to cough is overwhelming and the taste of blood at the back of my throat it’s sickening. If I had to guess, I would say my head is bleeding on the inside. Despite my wound, I try open the entrance enough to push Bolin out, he’ll have it worse than me if we get too far deep.

My vision is obscuring – I have to get Bolin out of here. It starts in the corner of my eye and spreads from there – I have to get Bolin out of here. I’m seeing black-red – I have to save him. Save everyone.

_Katara._

The power is instant, electric.

It starts in my veins, in my core, in my brain. It’s a shock, a blast, an energizing flow.

It guides the blood coursing through my arms and hands to perform a fluent gesture and I’m only distantly aware of the sound of the entire cabin splitting open. It’s a soft knock for me, unworthy of my attention. With this power, _nothing_ is worthy of my attention. Only my goals, only my survival.

I can’t see, everything is white and black, and alive and inexistent. I’m not alone, I can feel _them_ , they constructed this power for me to possess it now. We’re together.

_We are one._

I feel like I scream even when I know my lips are sealed. The strange non-scream makes me go up. And up and up; the water is pushing me, I’m commanding it to. I can’t feel the speed, I only feel the water, but I order it not to touch me. I create an orb around me, one filled with air to breathe and make the water to aim and force it up like a cannonball.

I’m safe.

I’m scared.

I’m powerful.

I am me.

I am them.

I am the energy.

I don’t know who I am.

**Sokka**

The flash of light burns my eyes. It’s like the sun had a baby with a lightning and that thing multiplied itself by a hundred before blowing itself up!

I can’t stare at it for long but I force myself to so I can see what the actual hell is going on in the water. It has something to do with Katara? Is she okay?

The waves arise from the white… “something tube” and they grow until becoming like mountains, until they reach the sky, making the night even darker, but at the same time lighting it up for the strange glowing orb they are holding like a great trophy. Like the most valuable jewel from a crown. What makes it the most weird and awesome – weirdly awesome – it’s how the water keeps flowing around the ball, like it was all alive.

I can see a figure inside of it. It looks human, like a girl.

_Wait a minute…_

_Katara?_

The waves bow down to deliver the globe in the plain waters at their feet, and they slowly and somewhat elegantly return to become part of the same unassuming current.

The water sphere continues to flow and floats to our way until it reaches the solid snow where we are standing. (It’s even harder to keep staring at that light this close, it’s _impossible_ for any human to bear that sight.) 

When it touches the snow, the water returns to the sea by itself, and the light slowly fades until revealing Katara, or at least… she _looks_ like Katara.

She’s holding Bolin unconscious body by the arm and all, but her expression is… not her.

And her eyes are… not her either.

They are the same light that shoot itself to the sky, the same light that was surrounding her just a moment ago.

They don’t even blink!

_She’s not my sister. Not now._

Her eyes close and she falls.

I catch her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update: Check out my newest Katara/Zutara fanart here (https://www.deviantart.com/heavensweetheart/art/Modern-Katara-848252069?ga_submit_new=10%3A1594356373) and here (https://heavensweetheart.tumblr.com/post/623227051845025792/modernkatara-like-i-said-part-of-larger-zutara)


	5. Author's Note

**_ Author’s Note _ **

**Hey, everyone!**

**I know I haven’t updated this fic in quite a while, but either way I wanted to thank you for your support on it.**

**I just came to tell you my life hasn’t been easy recently and that’s why I’ve spent so much time away, and maybe it doesn’t help that I’m overloading myself with writing and art projects.**

**Lately, I’ve been having some more than stressful days; I’ve been repeatedly bullied on social media for a number of topics, form country’s (Venezuela’s) situation, to my family’s personal situation, to my favorite book authors. (It makes no sense; I know.) The BLM movement is somewhat triggering for me because the same people that bully me for being Latina claim themselves “anti-racists”, and granted, maybe they are _not_ racist; they are just xenophobes. I just can’t stop seeing the hypocrisy and I don’t want to relate such horrible thoughts to such a noble cause. **

**All of that combined with my sleeping troubles gives me some awful migraines that certainly don’t get better if I keep pushing myself to work – (even if it is for writing and drawing, two of the things I love to do the most.)**

**What I’m trying to say is that I wanted to keep coming up with new chapters and new stories for keep bringing some joy even during the bad times… and also for trying to reach Cassandra Clare’s level of writing two books at a time.**

**But I guess I just can’t be Cassie Clare.**

**I realize now that I need to give myself some more space and treat myself kinder so, I’m going to use a little of that space for organizing my thoughts and then come back with more chapters. Just… when I’m ready.**

**I need some time to finish certain things and schedule new projects. Maybe with a new, more ordered agenda, I’ll find time to come up with new fanarts inspired on my current fics.**

**I’m not going to think much of it now, I just came to tell you that I’m glad you have enjoyed the fic so far, and that I hope you’ll keep enjoying it when I come back again. Thanks again for your support, it means the world to me!!**

**Bye!!**

**Hugs and kisses!!**


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